Tagged: UO sports

SCUA recently received two accessions documenting UO track and field history. The items were donated by two alumni, Clayton Steinke and Kenny Moore, who competed during the 1960s under head coach Bill Bowerman. These new materials complement existing administrative and coaching collections, but also contribute to understanding the unique perspective of the student-athlete. Coincidentally, both accessions include uniforms that provide a visual component of the legacy of UO track and field.

In 1962, four members of the UO team broke the world record for the four by one mile relay. Later that year, Steinke served as an alternate runner on the UO team invited to compete in the same relay distance in a meet against the New Zealand national team. As representatives of both the United States of America, and the University of Oregon, Bowerman devised a unique uniform. In order to satisfy the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union), the resulting singlet and shirt include references to the AAU and USA, but also pays homage to the University of Oregon. In addition to his uniform, Steinke donated his letterman’s jacket, scrapbooks, a memoir, correspondence and photographs.

This two-part series utilizes archival sources in the UO Special Collections and University Archives to show the long and contentious history of athletic mascots on the Eugene campus. Read more about the Webfoot era in Part 1.

It wasn’t a far leap for the Webfooter to become a Duck, yet the adoption of the latter as the University of Oregon mascot was a contentious part of Eugene history. As former Emerald sports editor Harold Mangum noted about the Webfoot mascot in 1926, “The name has been changed to Ducks in most instances, and if similarity to a duck is anything to be proud of, the world’s wrong and water runs uphill…. there is nothing brave, glorious, or inspiring about [a duck’s] presence.” Continue reading →

This two-part series utilizes archival sources in the UO Special Collections and University Archives to show the long and contentious history of athletic mascots on the Eugene campus.

When the University of Oregon played its first football game in the spring of 1894, there was not a mascot patrolling the sideline and inciting crowd participation. The UO team that played Albany College was known only as the “lemon yellow,” referring to the accent color of their uniforms. When the team returned to the field for three games in the fall, there was still no defining mascot for the team. For three decades after that first season, the school would have no official representative for its sports teams, and it would take another half-century before Oregon became the Oregon Ducks. Instead UO would come to be known by an obscure east-coast reference turned pejorative turned source of pride — the Webfoot.

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16mm Lost and Found
Blog highlighting University of Oregon Special Collections and University Archives 16mm films.

Oregon Digital Newspaper Program
ODNP is an initiative to digitize historic Oregon newspaper content and make it freely available to the public through a keyword-searchable online database.

Oregon Rare Books Initiative
The Oregon Rare Books Initiative (ORBI) seeks to publicize the wonderful early print and manuscript collections of Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon.

Warner and the World
This blog investigates, inspires, and collaborates with research examining the life, work, and collected material of Gertrude Bass Warner.